From Craigslist to FEI

I won't lie, this is a catchup post from April. Actually much of this blog is but it works :) So April was a hodge podge of things and nothing terribly notable happened. I didn't have some epiphany about my copious amounts of money, I didn't have anything serious happen good or bad with the animals, and it rained. Still.

My kiddo imitating me QQ Also, look how good Arthur is now <3

I bought a new trailer for the horses and while I was yearning for something with living quarters, it wasn't terribly practical to do dogs in as well as horses and so I was stuck. Just like when I bought my current trailer. Ugh. So I reflected on what I actually use the trailer for the most and how to handle everything and decided to split the vehicles. I hate having more vehicles, but the price and usability was MUCH better so I bought a 2+1 horse trailer and a smallish travel trailer for doing family things and dog things in. Plus husband said if I had some epic horse show and needed BOTH trailers, he'd totally bring the RV one for me so I kinda get the best of everything but cheaply. :)

New travel trailer and... rain.

April was the start of some crazy things spurred on by the Warwick Schiller clinic plus the realization that I could use my new money to finish out some old projects. So I'm going to send a dog out to be shown by a handler, hit some Barn Hunt events to work on my judging/showing/etc goals with that, and round out my horse supplies by getting things I need/want and upgrading things that should have been upgraded a while ago. I'm selling off the surplus or donating it for the write off. At least I'm doing something, plus its horse shopping and while I hate shopping in general, horse things aren't so bad.

On Sale? In your colors? Need to replace old ones? Yasss

The month is rounded out by the Warwick Schiller clinic in Terrell. Arthur has been doing well but I still haven't actually ridden him but it is what it is. The weekend was a huge tornado watch weekend and we even had to leave Saturday's dinner to move the horses into the center of the barn due to incoming storms and tornado activity. Yayness. Arthur seemed excited to have a plush stall and was very well behaved the whole time. The clinic group we were in was the PM group which meant you stayed out there the WHOLE time whether you were actively working or not. It was a long time to chill out. I sat with Arthur most the time and worked when we needed to to conserve energy. Warwick was able to point out a few nit picky things on my ground work and we worked on stressing Arthur. At the end of the day, Arthur spent about 30 minutes just free standing in the middle of everyone waiting for me or Warwick to come get him. He was very good and everyone was 100% sure he was a warmblood. This was the ongoing conversation once I left the arena:

"We've decided he's an Oldenberg, right?"

"Nope."

"Holsteiner then? What kind of warmblood, he HAS to be one since he moves so beautifully."

"Nope, he's a paint."

"Wait, what...?" *looks for spots "You mean Quarter Horse?"

"Nope, he's a paint ><"

I was gracious and thanked them and educated them as well. They were looking forward to him being ridden and I was like <> Me too.

Arthur thinks the new trailer is a-OK

Papillon co-pilot

Arthur loving his stall

Day two was pretty boring for us. I had kind of hoped Warwick would have some epic insight into what we needed to do but we really just did what we do at home. Plus side was I sat on him in a strange place and he did ok. We didn't walk, we didn't do anything but lateral flexion and relaxation. It was interesting watching the other participants though. I felt good about my skills (good enough that I probably won't attend another one of these) but I can totally see what Warwick deals with regularly with these "normal" people. Lots of sweet people with horses and they desperately wanted to love them and be loved back. Unno. We did it though. Bring on May!

Also the new trailer is completely epic for spending the weekend in. Dogs were in crates, horse had tons of room, hay had a place... ugh soooo nice!